Apple Borrows From Windows to Fix Its iPad Problem

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Apple Borrows From Windows to Fix Its iPad Problem

Bryan Derballa for WIRED

Apple ostensibly uses its Worldwide Developers Conference to chart a course for its software. This year—with the introduction of Apple Music, native Watch apps, and iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan highlights—was no different. But hidden behind all that code was a roadmap for resuscitating one of Apple’s lagging hardware products: The iPad.

That the iPad has been in decline is no revelation. Sales in the most recent quarter were down 23 percent year over year, and the pace of decline is accelerating. It’s also the only Apple tentpole product (the company only breaks out unit sales of its iPhone, iPad, and Mac lines) not to show growth in that same period. Even the Mac was up 10 percent, which is saying something.

The iPad’s wane isn’t especially mysterious. Large phones, like Apple’s own iPhone 6 Plus, have eaten into the need for small tablets like the iPad mini. More importantly, iPads don’t often need replacing. In fact, if you already own an iPad with a Retina display, you’ve never had a good incentive to upgrade. The tablet you bought in 2012 still works just fine. TouchID and a little less weight simply isn’t worth the trouble.

The iPad has no refresh cycle, and if it does, we’re still waiting for it. By contrast, most people purchase a new phone every two years. Each fall brings in fresh crop of high school and college students buying new MacBooks. A forever product is great for iPad owners. For Apple, it’s a problem. One the company just tried very hard to solve.

The first step toward getting more people to buy iPads? Give them more reasons to use it.

A significant portion of WWDC’s OS 9 presentation focused on the iPad, and new ways to interact with it. Well, new to Apple, anyway; many of the features had been lurking on Windows 8 since 2013.

Apple

There are a bevy of new iPad-friendly features, including the handy ability to turn your virtual keyboard into a touchpad with a tap. The three largest improvements, though, all center around multitasking. The first, SlideOver, lets you choose an app that will always be just a swipe away; move your finger from the right edge of your display to reveal Mail, Messages, Calendar, whatever. (The presentation only entailed Apple-made apps, but presumably third-party developers like Twitter will be able to participate by the time iOS 9 is live this fall.) Your SlideOver app shares the display with whatever you had open previously.

Picture-in-picture mode, meanwhile, overlays a small video player on whatever else you’re doing, so that you can feed your Hulu binge while you edit a work document. And Split View, lets two apps take over your display simultaneously, either in a 50/50 or 70/30 division of labor.

Aside from being heavily inspired by Windows 8, there are two important things to note about the iPad’s newly found multitasking fun. First is that it helps Apple reposition the iPad away from “Netflix window” and toward “potentially useful work device.” It opens the iPad up to an entire enterprise market—new customers, the ones who aren’t quite sure they really need or want a Surface—to which it had previously been a much tougher sell.

The other important detail about these additions? They’re reserved for the most recent models. Only the iPad Air and up will have access to SlideOver and picture-in-picture, while the iPad Air 2 will be the only device to see Split View. Not only has Apple finally given the iPad features worth updating for, it’s forcing a huge number of existing owners to do just that if they want in.

Enterprise also wasn’t the exclusive focus. When Apple showed off its new (remarkably Flipboard-like) News app, it did so largely on an iPad, where its big, broad layouts feel most at home. No one’s going to buy an iPad just for News—or at least, they almost certainly shouldn’t—but putting it side by side with work-friendly multitasking helps position it as the most well-rounded device in Apple’s portfolio. It also potentially set the table for something (literally) bigger down the road.

Rumors that Apple is working on a 12.9-inch “iPad Pro” have persisted since 2013, and should be treated with a full freighter of skepticism. But it’s at least worth acknowledging that many of the features Apple showed off today would play even better on a larger display, and one way to save itself from big phones cannibalizing small tablets is to simply make a bigger tablet.

Apple’s plan to save the iPad seems clear: Draw in a wary enterprise audience with work-friendly features. Leave old models behind. Create new experiences, like News, that remind people why they bought an iPad in the first place. And if none of that helps? Well, maybe see if a supersize version sticks.

The only question left, then, is whether borrowing a host of familiar Windows tablet features will be enough to get people buying iPads again.